Alden — POV
The last golem fell with a sound like a collapsing mountain.
Its massive stone body cracked down the center, fissures spreading like lightning before the entire construct crumbled into rubble. Dust billowed into the air, hanging there as if reluctant to settle.
I stood amid the ruins, sword lowered, shoulders trembling.
My chest heaved violently as I dragged air into my lungs, each breath burning as if shards of glass were lodged inside them. Sweat ran freely down my face, soaking my hair and dripping from my chin to the shattered ground below.
"…Haah… haah…"
My legs shook. Not from fear—but from exhaustion so deep it felt structural, as though my bones themselves were tired of holding me upright.
I had done it.
The golems were gone.
Hundreds—no, thousands—of them lay scattered across the field, broken into lifeless stone. The earth was scarred beyond recognition, torn apart by impacts, slashes, and shockwaves of mana. Where once there had been green and life, now there was only devastation.
I let my sword slip from my fingers.
It embedded itself into the soil with a dull thud.
I collapsed backward, landing on my back, staring up at the impossibly blue sky of the Garden of Chaos. Clouds drifted lazily overhead, uncaring, beautiful, almost mocking.
"…I really hate this place," I muttered between breaths.
For several minutes, I did nothing.
I didn't move.
Didn't think.
Didn't even try to circulate mana.
I simply lay there, letting my body remember how to exist without being actively hunted by reality itself.
Gradually, my breathing slowed. The trembling in my limbs eased. I pushed myself up into a sitting position, wincing as pain flared along my ribs and shoulders.
"Alright," I said quietly, more to myself than anything else. "One disaster at a time. That's manageable."
The Garden, as usual, disagreed.
The ground began to shake.
At first, it was subtle—barely more than a distant vibration, like a heartbeat felt through the soles of my boots. Then it grew stronger. Heavier. Rhythmic.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
I frowned and got to my feet, turning slowly toward the source.
What I saw made my blood run cold.
Mana beasts.
A flood of them.
They poured over the distant hills like a living tide—horned beasts, scaled monstrosities, hulking quadrupeds and lean, predatory forms moving together in one massive herd. Their numbers were beyond counting, stretching from one end of the horizon to the other.
And they weren't charging me.
They weren't even aware of me.
They were simply moving.
Crossing the land as a natural disaster in motion.
Each step they took sent tremors through the ground. Trees were uprooted and trampled beneath their sheer mass. Entire sections of forest collapsed as if they were made of paper.
"…You've got to be kidding me," I whispered.
There was nowhere to hide.
The trees—once my enemies—were now helpless, crushed beneath hooves and claws. The terrain itself was flattening, turning into a churned wasteland under the beasts' passage.
If they reached me—
I wouldn't even have time to scream.
I looked at my sword.
Then back at the oncoming herd.
Then—slowly—I sheathed the blade.
No hesitation.
No drama.
Running was the only intelligent choice.
I turned and sprinted in a diagonal direction, pouring everything I had left into my legs. Mana reinforced muscle fibers that were already screaming in protest, tendons threatening to snap under the strain.
The ground blurred beneath me.
The sound behind me grew louder.
Closer.
A sharp pain exploded along my calf.
I stumbled, nearly falling as claws raked across my leg, tearing through flesh. Blood splattered the ground, hot and vivid.
"—Tch!"
I bit back a cry and forced mana into the wound.
Stellar light wrapped around the injury, sealing flesh just enough to keep me moving. Pain remained—but it became distant, secondary to survival.
I ran faster.
Faster than I thought possible.
Time lost meaning.
Minutes blurred into what felt like hours as I pushed forward, lungs burning, vision narrowing. The thunder of the herd slowly faded behind me until, at last—
Silence.
I collapsed again, this time to my knees.
"…Haah… haah…"
My hands shook as I pressed them into the dirt, grounding myself.
"I… shook them off," I murmured in disbelief.
For a fleeting second, relief washed over me.
Then the sky turned red.
Heat rolled over the land in suffocating waves as the distant horizon erupted in fire.
A volcano.
No—the volcano.
The mountain split open, spewing molten mana and magma into the sky. Rivers of glowing energy spilled down its sides, coating the earth as they advanced outward, devouring everything in their path.
The greenery withered instantly, reduced to ash as the mana-laced magma swallowed it whole.
And it was flowing—
Straight toward me.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
"No… no, no, no—"
I turned and ran again, ignoring the way my legs screamed, ignoring the emptiness in my mana core.
But then—
The ground ahead darkened.
The air changed.
A shadow rose, swallowing the sky.
I looked up.
And felt true terror.
A tsunami.
Not of water.
Of night.
A tidal wave of abyssal darkness—hundreds of kilometers tall—rolling across the land, consuming ground and sky alike. It erased everything it touched, leaving nothing behind.
I stopped.
Because there was nowhere left to go.
Behind me, the volcano's mana-laced magma surged closer.
Ahead, the night tide advanced inexorably.
And from the forests to my sides, I could hear it—
The beasts again.
Swarming.
Closing in.
I stood there, trembling, sword still sheathed, body broken and mana nearly gone.
And I laughed.
A hollow, breathless sound.
"…Wow," I said softly. "This is… impressive."
For the first time since entering this place, something inside me cracked.
"…Guess I overestimated myself."
I tilted my head back, staring at the annihilation rushing toward me from all sides.
"So this is it, huh?"
The Garden did not answer.
Instead—
Space tore open beside me.
A portal bloomed into existence, calm and silent, like an open door in the middle of the apocalypse.
[DING!]
[Congratulations! Host has survived the terror of the Garden of Chaos.]
I didn't even look at the screen.
I stepped forward without hesitation.
The instant I crossed the threshold, the world behind me vanished—magma, tsunami, and beasts colliding in mutual annihilation as the portal snapped shut.
I fell forward onto cold stone, gasping as if I had been drowning.
"…Haah… haah…"
My entire body felt numb.
I lay there for a long moment, then slowly rolled onto my back, staring at a familiar ceiling.
"…I'm alive," I whispered.
A shaky laugh escaped me.
"That was… way too close."
Only then did I finally turn my gaze inward, toward the floating system screen hovering before me.
[Reward Granted.]
I swallowed.
"…Alright," I said quietly. "What did I just earn?"
The screen flickered.
[Reward: …]
The text paused.
And for the first time—
The system hesitated.